Rapper KR$NA: Artists are becoming huge without the help of Bollywood

KR$NA, who was one of the first Indian rappers, feels that the rap culture in India has exploded in the past few years.

One of the first Indian rappers, Krishna Kaul, best known as KR$NA, is happy to see the evolution of the rap culture in the country.

KR$NA recently collaborated with rapper Badshah for the song Roll Up.

“The Indian rap scene has exploded over the past few years. Being one of the first rappers here, it makes me really proud to see Hip Hop come so far in India. I think we are just going to get bigger as a genre, which has been the global trend. Young people gravitate towards hip hop, no matter which country it is in the world,” he says.

Talking about the music industry in India, the rapper says that he lauds how it is no longer dominated by Bollywood as much now, which mostly used to be the case earlier.

“There is a lot of freedom in terms of music discovery and publishing — artistes can distribute their own music and don’t have to be dependent on labels, films etc. There is a huge choice of artistes and genres to choose from at peoples fingertips and they can listen to what they like instead of just Bollywood songs being force fed to them,” he shares.

He notes that the transition from Bollywood obsession to increase in indie musicians is already quite prominent.

“The transition from Bollywood’s dominance to indie music finding its feet is already happening. Bollywood picks up a lot of music that becomes popular ‘independently’ nowadays, and then reworks it into movies,” KR$NA explains.

While the rapper, who recently collaborated with Badshah on Roll Up, appreciates Bollywood for giving a platforms, he is quick to add, “I think Bollywood has for the longest time been the biggest platform for an artiste or music producer to find mass popularity. That is now changing; artistes are becoming huge without the help of Bollywood as well and less and less seek validation from the film industry.”